Is there a lesser of two evils?
That was a pressing issue for movie theater owners until Netflix pulled out of a bidding war with Warner Bros., paving the way for Paramount Skydance to take over the media giant. Regardless of which bidder wins, there were concerns that if the merger went through, it would result in consolidation that would result in fewer new films being released on screens. This is a major concern as the box office has yet to recover from the pandemic and the 2023 Hollywood labor strike, with domestic ticket sales down about 20% compared to pre-pandemic levels.
“This is like poisoning,” says the exhibition consultant. “The longer the battle over disastrous deals ensues, the fewer major releases will come from studios.”
The sale to Netflix had exhibitors worried that the streaming giant would take a sledgehammer to movie theaters (a term used to describe the hours when movies are shown only in theaters). After all, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has repeatedly dismissed the moviegoing experience over the past decade as an “outdated concept.” But some movie theater operators were (cautiously) starting to warm up to Netflix after Sarandos promised not only to keep Warner Bros. movies in theaters, but to keep them on the big screen for 45 days. Despite Sarandos’ claims, executives at rival studios and movie theater industry veterans were skeptical that Netflix would deliver on its promises over the long term.
“Everything Netflix has said is true,” said Chris Randleman, chief revenue officer of Texas-based movie theater circuit Flix Brewhouse. “At the end of the day, we just want to have as many movies in theaters as possible at one time.”
In Paramount’s case, CEO David Ellison has positioned the company as the anti-Netflix and true champion of theaters. More pointedly, Mr. Ellison promised that the cooperative media giant would release more than 30 movies a year in theaters. In theory, this is an ideal way to perform large-scale media integration without disrupting theater business in the process. However, some Hollywood insiders have questioned whether such volumes are realistic. For context, in 2025 Universal announced the biggest release with 20 films (including titles from indie arm Focus Features), followed by Disney with 16 (counting titles from 20th Century and Searchlight) and Sony with 13. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. released 11 films during the same period, and Paramount released nine films.
“I don’t know how long Paramount hasn’t released 15 movies,” said an executive at a rival studio.
Paramount has not disclosed how it will operate the two film divisions, but executives said they aim to save up to $6 billion in costs by eliminating “duplicate operations” across the business. In the theater field, that will likely mean merging marketing and distribution departments. With that in mind, analysts believe the bigger problem with committing to releasing 30 new films over 52 weeks is staffing. They believe it is unrealistic to task a movie studio’s marketing department with successfully promoting a movie every two weeks.
“Paramount won’t be able to afford to release as many movies if they cut jobs,” says an exhibition consultant. “It’s possible to release 30 movies, but you can’t do that with a small number of people.”
Next, I have a question about theater windows. In December, Ellison insisted the company respects “healthy traditional windows.” But analysts note that Paramount already has a “relatively short theatrical window” compared to its competitors in the distribution space. We don’t expect this period to be long, given that Paramount President Jeff Shell was aggressively pushing to get movies into homes sooner when he was CEO of NBCUniversal. During the pandemic, Shell was the architect of Universal’s controversial 17-day period between its theaters and premium video-on-demand platform, a significantly shorter period than the already shortened industry standard.
“Last year, Paramount’s exclusive run was shorter than any other studio except Universal,” said David A. Gross, who runs the film consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. He noted that the studio’s 2025 films had been in exclusive theatrical release for about 31 days, adding that “there has been no change in our release strategy” since Skydance acquired Paramount for $8 billion last August.
Is there another reason to be skeptical about the promise of being able to sustain such a high volume of film production? quality control. That’s because, with streaming becoming more popular, the bar for theater — anything that actually gets audiences from their couches to their local multiplexes — has never been higher.
“Any studio can put out 15 or more wide releases a year (just over one a month) and be successful,” Gross says. “In a year, studios can only effectively develop, produce, market and distribute 15 wide-ranging stories around the world. 30 wide-ranging releases is highly unrealistic.”
Movie theater operators remain hurt by Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019, which left them with one less major studio after Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox (whose film library included franchises such as Avatar, X-Men and Alien). Prior to the merger, Fox released 14 films in 2017, 14 in 2018, and 11 in 2019. Under the Disney banner, 20th Century Studios’ output has shrunk dramatically to three films in 2023, four in 2024, and six in 2025. Despite Ellison’s comments about production increases, the box office expects a similar decline if Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. passes regulatory approval.
“The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger will concentrate up to 40 percent of annual domestic box office revenue in the hands of a single dominant studio,” Cinema United, a trade group representing box office companies, warned in early February ahead of a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights. “The impact will not only impact theater owners, but also moviegoers and surrounding businesses in communities of all sizes.”
Although rival studio executives and movie theater owners feel neither deal is beneficial to the industry, some have expressed relief that Paramount won because it already has the infrastructure needed to support the big screen.
“Given their history, Paramount has an advantage because they’ve always done theater,” Randleman said. “We want the creative community to have strong support. We need a strong theater industry ecosystem. Our hope is that they keep their word.”
But is it realistic to think that Paramount could significantly increase output by merging with Warner Bros. while also cutting costs and finding a way to pay down its massive debt? Ellison may be saying the right thing about theater owners, but history tells a different story.
